Have you been stolen from?
Have you been stolen from?
Has someone or something stolen from you? Do you know who/what it was? Did it affect you? Do you care?
Doesn't have to be serious.
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I was a court advocate for victims of domestic violence, volunteering at the same facility that had helped me escape an extreme situation. Having noticed that there was no federal, state, local, or private list of resources for people in crisis, I approached the director to request permission to compile a comprehensive guide and make it publicly available. Although I would’ve done it for free, the director saw the need and suggested this should be a highly-paid position; she announced the job opening to everyone at the next meeting.
A woman I’d never seen before expressed interest at the meeting, so I introduced myself and offered to collaborate to make the publication a success. We were scheduled to make our presentation to the board in a month. I gathered my half of the research and negotiated with businesses to donate materials and operating expenses, so that this program would be self-sustaining. I contacted the other woman every couple days to update her on what I’d accomplished, and to gather her data. She never had anything except excuses, so I gathered her share of the data, too.
On the day of the meeting, I’d done 100% of the work, which I’d happily shared with her, and I had put together the entire presentation. I didn’t mind, because this was a valuable community service. I arrived early for the meeting and sat outside the closed boardroom, waiting for my “partner”, but she never showed up.
At precisely the agreed-upon time for our meeting to start, the boardroom door opened and my partner emerged, grinning as everyone congratulated her. Yeah. I still didn’t get it.
I was ushered in and was asked to make my presentation. I was quickly interrupted because the board wanted to see MY efforts, not the work of the other woman. They accused me of stealing her work and told me to leave.
The other woman received a hefty salary for almost a year, but she never even bothered to use my research and connections to make even one flyer. Eventually she was fired and the failed community service idea became anathema to the facility.
That fucker changed the meeting time, stole my work and all the credit for it, scammed herself into the position, took the salary from the outreach budget, and destroyed the comprehensive resource list that would have helped tens of thousands of people in crisis.
a) Kudos for getting out and giving back. You took your strength and utilized it ten-fold. That's really cool.
b) Had this done twice, once with my just-desserts and once with my face on the concrete.
c) Idk if a lot of the people who were volunteering were in the same space as you but some people are just warped either by life or by the situation and it sounds like you found a real rotten one. Worst part is she's still probably out there doing it to someone else. I think it's kinda like when they say stuff like how you can't become rich without stepping on others. It takes some really skeezy characteristics to get ahead in this world, and they all seem to be the exact opposite morals promote.
Fuck that woman though, you did what you wanted to out of the good of your heart and your program could have made a big difference. Hopefully now there's another program that has floated to the surface that has taken its place and does okay. I wish you had a heart to heart with the director, but I bet you ten bucks you ended up leaving if one of the people who turned on you was her. All things aside, I'm sorry you had this happen to you. It's outright rotten.